The CreateDebate Bloghttp://blog.createdebate.com
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:22:12 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4A Vision of K-12 Students Todayhttp://blog.createdebate.com/2010/09/28/a-vision-of-k-12-students-today/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2010/09/28/a-vision-of-k-12-students-today/#commentsWed, 29 Sep 2010 02:22:12 +0000Loudacrishttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/09/28/a-vision-of-k-12-students-today/Came across this cool video today that perfectly reflects the goal behind our push to get teachers using CreateDebate in the Classroom. Are you a teacher interested in using a web-based virtual learning environment to increase participation, promote critical thinking, and improve the vocabulary and persuasive writing skills of your students? Get started now!
]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2010/09/28/a-vision-of-k-12-students-today/feed/0Love and Debatehttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/09/15/love-and-debate/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/09/15/love-and-debate/#commentsTue, 15 Sep 2009 19:36:25 +0000Bryanhttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/09/15/love-and-debate/Love and Debate, a great new movie by Virgil Films, is a coming of age story about a Jewish Latina girl, Jordan (played by Gina Phillips) who finds her way through the trials and tribulations faced by teenagers. Jordan, who grows up in a Jewish household, where the customary role of a woman is to get married to a Jewish man and have kids, aspires to make more of her life than simply what her parents expect.

In her senior year of high school, with the help of a teacher, Coach Amal (Sean Astin), Jordan joins the debate team and quickly becomes one of the top debaters in the country, earning a scholarship to Harvard for debate. While at college she faces several horrifying experiences, but leverages the power of her mind and the human spirit to overcome the adversity and keep her life under control.

Love and Debate is a great coming of age story about a girl who wants more out of life than simply fulfilling her parents expectations, and leverages the power of debate to exercise her mind and fulfill her dreams. Everyone can relate to this story, as we’ve all grown up and gone through the trials and tribulations of life and dealt with the tough decisions that life brings. Also, CreateDebate users can relate to the power of debate and how it allows you to open your mind to new ideas that you have previously not considered. Check out the trailer here.

Movie Giveaway

To celebrate the release of the new film, CreateDebate and Virgil Films have partnered to give away ten free copies of the movie to the winners of the following contests, which will run through October 9th:

The two creators of the debates with the highest “Debate Scores” during the contest.

The two creators of the debates with the most “Debate Views” during the contest. Feel free to get creative in marketing your debate. Post it to Digg, email your friends and family, encourage your co-workers to use it, or any other crazy idea that you can come up with to drive traffic to your debate.

Today we launched CreateDebate in the Classroom, which is a culmination of months of hard work put in by the CreateDebate team. Now, teachers can leverage all of the features and functionality of CreateDebate in a private setting specifically designed for a classroom. We have worked with several teachers to understand what’s important to them and their students, and have built the site accordingly. We are giving away a free 30-day trial to all teachers who sign up for a private site.

CreateDebate in the Classroom enables teachers to customize and build an online debate community that can be easily incorporated into almost any lesson plan. Typically, teachers will create debates around questions that will build on the current course of study. The goal is to engage students and enrich the classroom conversation through peer collaboration. Debates can be conducted in the classroom “real-time” (if computers with Internet access are available) or participation can be assigned as homework and reviewed in class.

Students love CreateDebate because it brings the power of the Internet into the classroom. For instance, the debate scoring mechanism allows students to vote on the arguments written by their peers. As a result, the most compelling arguments are voted to the top of each debate. The net effect is a competition where students are striving to craft well-written, logical arguments. In addition, the CreateDebate platform includes a host of social networking features that allow students to build their own profile and make connections with their classmates.

Teachers love CreateDebate in the Classroom because it’s simple to configure and administer. It typically takes about 15 minutes to create and personalize a new debate community. The admin panel guides the teacher through set up and offers access to a wide array of features that make teaching easier. Teachers can make announcements, see who is online, track and evaluate participation, give private feedback, filter inappropriate content and more!

CreateDebate allows students to practice their persuasive writing, critical thinking, and constructive reasoning skills in a modern online environment. Know a teacher who could use CreateDebate? Help us to spread the word about CreateDebate in the Classroom!

]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/08/20/createdebate-in-the-classroom/feed/0The Great Debatehttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/07/15/the-great-debate/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/07/15/the-great-debate/#commentsWed, 15 Jul 2009 22:06:25 +0000Loudacrishttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/07/15/the-great-debate/Watched a very funny VH1 show last night that deserves a shout out. The Greate Debate is a “Best Week Ever” type show where a motley crew of pop culture comedians crack rapid fire one-liners about intense pop culture debates…and hilarity ensues.

Congratulations to Kuklapolitan for getting the most people to join CreateDebate by using our new Site Invitation feature. For inviting her friends to join CreateDebate, Kukla has earned a $20 gift certificate to Clutch Tees.

]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/05/18/spring-fever-contest-results/feed/0Spring Fever Contestshttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/04/14/spring-fever-contests/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/04/14/spring-fever-contests/#commentsWed, 15 Apr 2009 01:07:42 +0000Bryanhttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/04/14/spring-fever-contests/Now that the weather is starting to warm up and everyone is gearing up for Spring, it’s time to make sure you’ve got some sweet gear to rock when you emerge from your winter slumber. To help you out, CreateDebate has partnered with ClutchTees.com to give away a $20 gift certificate for a free t-shirt this month. We’re also giving away some more free books courtesy of our good friends at Hachette Book Group to keep your mind sharp.

Contest #1- Tell Your Friends (April 14th-30th)

Invite your friends to join CreateDebate and win a $20 gift certificate from ClutchTees. Simply click here and invite all of your friends, family, co-workers, enemies, and random people on the street to join CreateDebate. Whoever gets the most people to join CreateDebate wins the gift certificate and can choose from any of the awesome t-shirts!

Contest #2- Earth Day Celebration (April 22nd-May 8th)

Global warming or climate rotation? Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? These are just a couple of the debates on CreateDebate regarding Mother Earth. Well, regardless of your thoughts on these topics, April 22nd is Earth Day, and CreateDebate wants to help you celebrate Mother Earth by giving away some great books. Winners will be selected for each of the following:

The creator of the debate with the highest “Debate Score” during the contest.

The creator of the debate with the most “Debate Views” during the contest. Feel free to get creative in marketing your debate. Post it to Digg, email your friends and family, encourage your co-workers to use it, or any other crazy idea that you can come up with to drive traffic to your debate.

]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/04/14/spring-fever-contests/feed/0Downvoting Updatehttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/16/downvoting-update/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/16/downvoting-update/#commentsTue, 17 Mar 2009 00:47:51 +0000Bryanhttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/16/downvoting-update/There has been much discussion on CreateDebate about the use / abuse of downvotes on the site and certain participants getting “mass” downvoted, causing their efficiency score to drop dramatically. In order to combat this problem and provide greater transparency around voting, we have decided to implement the following:

Each downvote now costs the downvoter 1 Reward Point.

The downvote is now displayed in the User’s Reward Point history.

In our opinion, the main problem isn’t downvotes, per se, but rather encouraging responsible downvoting. We believe that flawed logic or inherently poor arguments should be downvoted, but that participants should not mass downvote a person with whom they disagree.

In our opinion, downvoting should be reserved for poorly thought out, offensive, stupid, or totally-off-base arguments. If you disagree strongly with someone’s argument, then we encourage you to rebut their argument, citing logical fallacies, incorrect information, or poor argumentation. In this way you can help maintain the integrity of CreateDebate and help that participant to understand what you disagree with in their argument.

If you need some reminders on how to write strong arguments, check out our previous blog post on this exact topic.

]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/16/downvoting-update/feed/0Mental Stimulus Package Contest Resultshttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/03/mental-stimulus-package-contest-results/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/03/mental-stimulus-package-contest-results/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2009 16:14:25 +0000Bryanhttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/03/mental-stimulus-package-contest-results/Congratulations to the winners of each of the three contests that CreateDebate ran as part of our Mental Stimulus Packagein February. This month, we gave away ninety-five books from Hachette Book Group and a $20 gift certificate to Clutch Tees.

]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/03/03/mental-stimulus-package-contest-results/feed/0The CreateDebate Mental Stimulus Packagehttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/02/07/the-createdebate-mental-stimulus-package/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/02/07/the-createdebate-mental-stimulus-package/#commentsSat, 07 Feb 2009 19:59:02 +0000Bryanhttp://blog.createdebate.com/2009/02/07/the-createdebate-mental-stimulus-package/While lawmakers are figuring out how they can take more of taxpayer’s money to give to Wall St. executives, CreateDebate wants to give YOU something free. That’s why we’re officially bailing out our awesome debaters via CreateDebate’s Mental Stimulus Package. We will be running three different contests this month, with tons of awesome prizes courtesy of our good friends at Hachette Book Group and ClutchTees.com.

Contest #1- Love is in the Air (February 7th -14th)

With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, CreateDebate would like to share a little love with everyone. We will be running 5 concurrent contests through Valentine’s Day, and the winner of each contest will get one free copy of all 11 books below. Winners will be selected for each of the following:

The creator of the debate with the highest “Debate Score” during the contest.

The creator of the debate with the most “Debate Views” during the contest. Feel free to get creative in marketing your debate. Post it to Digg, email your friends and family, encourage your co-workers to use it, or any other crazy idea that you can come up with to drive traffic to your debate.

Judge’s choice for best debate during the contest.

Top 2 users with most points during the contest.

Note: All debates must be tagged “VDayContest” in order to be eligible for the prizes. Debates do not have to be about Valentine’s Day, but relevance will be a factor in the judge’s choice contest.

February is African American History Month, and CreateDebate is all about diversity. Diversity of thought, age, political party, ethnicity, race, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, and religion are just a few of the diversity attributes that make CreateDebate such a great place.

In honor of African American History Month, CreateDebate will be running 5 concurrent contests through the end of the month and the winner of each contest will get one free copy of each of the 8 books below. Winner’s will be selected for each of the following:

The creator of the debate with the highest “Debate Score” during the contest.

The creator of the debate with the most “Debate Views” during the contest. Feel free to get creative in marketing your debate. Post it to Digg, email your friends and family, encourage your co-workers to use it, or any other crazy idea that you can come up with to drive traffic to your debate.

Judge’s choice for best debate during the contest.

Top 2 users with most points during the contest.

Note: All debates must be tagged “AAHMContest” in order to be eligible for the prizes. Debates do not have to be about African American History Month, but relevance will be a factor in the judge’s choice contest.

CreateDebate has partnered with Clutch Tees to put some clothes on your back. Unleash your creativity and help Clutch Tees come up with a new T-shirt design. Post your original T-shirt idea to the Clutch Tees Debate, and the best design as voted on by the CreateDebate community will win a $20 gift certificate to Clutch Tees. If they decide to make your T-shirt, then you will receive a $50 gift certificate!

We hope that you enjoy these contests as much as we do! Best of luck, we look forward to some great creativity in February!

]]>http://blog.createdebate.com/2009/02/07/the-createdebate-mental-stimulus-package/feed/0You Just Got Upgraded!http://blog.createdebate.com/2008/12/23/you-just-got-upgraded/
http://blog.createdebate.com/2008/12/23/you-just-got-upgraded/#commentsTue, 23 Dec 2008 16:16:53 +0000Loudacrishttp://blog.createdebate.com/2008/12/23/you-just-got-upgraded/We just launched a new version of CreateDebate that will let you personalize your debates more than ever! Go ahead and create a new debate. The new interface makes it easy to insert pictures, add videos from YouTube or Google Video, add unlimited hyperlinks, format your text, and so much more!

The moderator panel has been upgraded as well. It is now possible to edit every facet of your debates, including tags, pictures, categories, etc. It is even possible to go back and improve or fine tune older debates.

At CreateDebate, our goal is to empower people to make better decisions. We hope that by providing you with a more powerful toolset, you’ll be able to create even more interesting and compelling debates. What are you waiting for, go check it out!

PS – If you find any any elusive bugs, please drop a note or leave a comment (and include the version of your current browser). Thanks!